Trouble-hit women's rehab centre Fair Havens could close again after chairwoman Elaine Charles resigned following board unhappiness about her unilateral decision to re-open.

The centre had announced it was to close last month because it had so few referrals but on New Year's Eve Mrs. Charles reversed the decision because she wanted to avoid putting clients out on to the streets. The Royal Gazette understands that the Fair Haven board, which now has no chairperson, is considering selling off the site and using the cash to fund overseas treatment for women.

The board will meet with funders the National Drug Commission and the Council Partners Charitable Trust this week to discuss the future of Fair Havens. One board member said: "As far as being a primary residential treatment facility, yes it will close. Whether or not the facility will stay open, that's for others to decide."

Mrs Charles said she did not regret acting to help the women still living at the 18-bed facility in Smith's. She said she had done so after learning that promises that alternative housing had been found for the three women was false. Mrs. Charles, who resigned on Friday, said: "The board was unhappy with my decision to keep the facility open in light of the ladies' plight."

Mrs. Charles said she had been surprised by the board's reaction. She said: "We had an ethical responsibility to provide accommodation until such time as they could get housing. The departing executive director (Anne Vance) had said the ladies had been transferred out."

Mrs. Vance told The Royal Gazette: "I find the comment that patients had nowhere to go a rather self serving `ride to the rescue' observation.

"To begin with, the `patients' numbered two. These two women had options to move elsewhere. Some lodgings were not suitable as the clients said there were drugs around or they very crowded. Before leaving I negotiated a stay for one with her niece - in accommodation I would describe as very upscale.

"She had known from day one of our possible closing but had refused to go to other accommodation, including those of relatives. Many of these ladies had for years abused their welcome, but now clean it was hard for them to be accepted or trusted.

"She was the one lady who on my departure was still there. The doors were kept open for her. You can see we left no one abandoned.

"After an appearance on TV the second patient received a number of phone calls very generously offering accommodation - some from family.

"She has a large extended family on the island. I believe she had moved out as other fellow recovering patients were taking her belongings to her work.

A board source said: "The women refused to budge. We could not kick them out. They are squatting there."

But Mrs. Charles said she did not understand why, if accommodation had been found, the women were still there. She said: "I have to act on what is real.

"As chair person I felt the responsibility to see these ladies were not just thrown out on to the side of the road."

Asked why she had not consulted the board she said it was a crisis situation she said: "This was New Year's Eve. To call around to get board approval to do the right thing? You think that was my concern? I don't think I needed board approval to do what I was in the business to do from the beginning."

Mrs. Charles, who is a social worker, denied she had gone against the board's original decision to close because she was pressured by Health Minister Nelson Bascome who is her boss.

One board member told The Royal Gazette that it had been a unanimous decision by the 11-member board to close but no-one had been consulted by Mrs. Charles about the decision to re-open. Mrs. Charles said the lack of referrals from the Bermuda Assessment and Referral Centre (BARC) had been a problem in keeping Fair Havens open but she said BARC was a new organisation finding its feet.

"You can't just open up and expect people to walk through the doors. BARC was getting itself in gear and getting accepted as part of the treatment system."

She said Fair Havens could have carried on with self referrals and those from other agencies. And she blamed personal agendas for its collapse. "I assume it was about personal agendas. I don't know what they are.

"If you are not going to keep the place open what motivates that decision, why? Why would you want to close? Just because the executive director has resigned is no reason to close. You start to apply yourself again."

However a board source said the lack of referrals meant Fair Havens was not economically viable. The board member said the lack of referrals was because of lack of communication within the referral agencies.

"Nobody seems to know what the other person does. They are afraid to refer because they don't know what's happening. Anne Vance was starting to make inroads but she was getting blocked."

Mrs. Vance said: "We had few referrals from BARC it is true. And I believe the reason is that they had few clients to refer."

Council Partners Executive Director Gordon Johnson said of BARC: "We are aggressively trying to determine what BARC is, there aren't a lot of details. We are hoping to have a meeting in the new year."

And he paid tribute to Mrs. Charles. He said: "She served Fair Havens through a very difficult and trying time.

"She placed the needs of the women either in treatment or seeking treatment at the forefront of her volunteer service."

Neither National Drugs Commission Acting Executive Director Dr. Don Philip or Health Minister Nelson Bascome returned calls yesterday.